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THE LAW AND THE OFFENCE: 


^ 


LECTURE 1 


ON THE SUBJECT OF 


PROHIBITORY LAWS, 


• 

I IN KEGAU!) TO THE USE OF 


INTOXICATING bETOS,:,:,, 


EY 


REV. J. C. L0VEJOY, ' 


1 C A M B n I D G E P R T . 1 


! !■ 
J'rice ^^) J >') ]><■/■ loO — sinf/le copy 8 cents. i 


BOSTON: 


i PRINTED BY CHARLES C. P. MOODY, OLD DICKINSON OFFICE. j 
; No. 52 Washington street. 1 

. i ■ 1852. . ' i 



THE LAW AND THE OFFENCE 



LECTURE 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



PROHIBITORY LAWS, 



BEGARD TO THE USE OP 



INTOXICATING DRINKS, 



REV. fff Co^ LOVEJOY, 

CAMBRIDGEPORT. 



Price $5.00 pe?' 100 — single copy 8 cents. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY CHARLES C. P. MOODY. OLD DICKINSON OFFICE, 

No. 52 Washington Street, 

1852. 






JN ^.v/ H'^ NUB 



^ 



Camlridge, March 18, 1852. 
Dear Sir, — 

The undersigned, who were among the few who were permit- 
ted, by the inclemency of the weather, to listen to the discourse which you 
delivered on Sunday evening last, upon the proposed law, known as the 
"Maine Liquor Law," now under consideration in the Legislature of Massachu- 
setts, being desirous that both sides of the question may be fully presented, 
respectfully request a copy of your discourse for publication. 
Your obedient serv'ts, 

JUSTIN A. JACOBS, 
J. LIVERMORE, 
S. P. HEYWOOD, 
A. CHAMBERLAIN, 
G. W. LIVERMORE, 
FRANCIS HUNT, 
JOHN MANNING. 
Rev. J. G.LovEjoY. 



tdPYRIGBt SECVREt). 



LECTURE 



"Moreover THE Law entered that the Offence siight abound." 
(Romans 5; 20.) 

This is the invariable influence of law upon a corrupt mind. It 
makes the offence abound. Restrictions upon the manifestations of an 
inward desire, inflame that desire. Parricides, said Seneca, began by 
law. So Chrysostom, " where we covet anything, and are hindered 
from obtaining it, the flame of our inordinate desire is the more aug- 
mented." If there is nothing in the prohibition to subdue the inward 
desire, that desire presses against the barrier, and resisted, recoils with 
irritation upon itself, summons new strength to break forth, if it can. 
Now one of two things must happen ; you must have power enough in 
your penalty, to maintain the law against the original desire, and these 
augmented forces of the desire, or your law is prostrate. Or else 
when you find this newly developed power prostrating the law, and 
trampling on the penalty, you must resort to some new expedient. 

The impotence of the Law of God on moral beings, is met by God 
by the potver of the gospel. 

" For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the 
flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for 
sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might 
be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 

The gospel bi-ings men up to the mould of the law, by penetrating 
to the heart, and working there. It sends pardoning love home to the 
soul, and causes it to thrill with the joys of forgiveness, and then leads 
it easily in the path of holiness, the way of eternal life. 

The depraved heart of man, and therefore the uneasy and restless 
heart, generates within itself corrupt and inordinate desires ; those desires 
flame forth in diseased appetites, and set on fire the whole course of 
nature, and are set on fire of hell. These inward burning desires give 
all the force and the strength to temptation, spread death within, and 
crime and woes without. 

When you introduce a new law, you must look to it, that you have 
power, not only to crush whatever opposition may now exist, but also 
all that may be excited by the irritation which your law will produce. 

And now I know very well the condiiions under which I speak in 
regard to the proposed Prohibitory Law upon the subject of intoxica- 
ting liquors, and I accept those conditions. If I do not make out a rea- 
sonable ground of opposition, I must be condemned. I know very well 
the excitement that now prevails, and will increase upon this subject, 
and in the midst of that flame, I must stand, and perhaps be consumed, 
and perhaps not. I would have avoided it if I could ; but neutrality 



I 



1 



upon any subject where you have formed a definite opinion, is a posi- 
tion only for a coward, and one that no man can long occupy, without 
forfeiting his own self-respect, and doing violence to his moral nature. 

We are apt, however, to comfort ourselves some way, and I remem- 
ber truth has been in the fire before, and never came out the worse 
for it. One thing should console those who are opposed to what I say; 
there are multitudes upon the other side to answer it. And then 
when you have nailed your colors to the mast, and written " Prohibitori/ 
Laio" upon them, and I have written the old motto, " Light and Love," 
we will launch our temperance barks upon the great ocean of the future, 
and sit down by the shore as ti'ue philosophers, and see which escapes 
the ice bergs, which the rocks, and which goes down as the model for 
future ages. And if you feel that the case is made out against the law,^ 
and you are determined not to yield it up, why, then you can get vexed, 
say hard things, let your indignation flame up, — holy indignation of 
course, — but just remember that holy indignation is sometimes a little 
hot. " Friend of publicans and sinners," was written on the raiment of 
him, whose shoes and whose name I am not worthy to bear. 

But to the subject. I shall tell you the history of my opinions upon 
this matter, what they are, and the reasons for them. 

Twenty-five years ago, when an under-graduate in Bowdoin College, 
Maine, I travelled fifteen miles on foot, to give my first lecture upon 
the subject of temperance, availing myself largely of statistics from an 
address by Chas. Sprague, Esq., of Boston, and I think also from a 
sermon by Dr. Humphrey. 

From that time up to the year 1840,1 gave repeated temperance lec- 
tures in vai'ious places, all gratuitous ; travelling commonly at my 
own expense. In 1840 and '41, I was employed by the State Society 
of Maine, to lecture upon the subject through the State. During that 
period, I made the whole subject a study, according to the best of my 
abilities, and arrived at some fixed and definite conclusions. I convers- 
ed personally and freely, I presume, with more than one thousand' 
drinking men ; got at, so far as possible, the cause, the progress, the 
temptations to this vice, and the reason for continuing the habit. The 
causes were various : some outspoken, square-faced fellows, said they 
drank because they loved it ; some to bury sorrow, some because they 
were social, and were in the company of drinking men. I found that 
if drinking or drunkenness is the only vice of which a man is guilty,, 
there is hope of him ; but very frequently the whole foundation of 
moral character, is in such cases gone. Not only is the breath corrupt^ 
but the lungs are rotten. Corruption within works out in drunkenness 
as one of its most terrible forms, but is by no means the cause of all' 
other crimes, but almost always the chosen companion. It is commonly 
a sign of inward wo, and a sign too, that " all is lost." The process 
generally is, corruption running to excess in some form, and not rum 
generating corruption. The leprosy lies " deep within." 

The subject of a prohibitory law was discussed in Maine from 1836 
to 1841, with a great deal of earnestness, and my opinions were then, 
as now, that the thing is absui'd, impossible, and unjust. 

Now let us for a moment glance at the history and phases of the 



temperance cause itself, up to the present time. From 1827 to 1833, 
the war was against ardent spirits. The weapons were, facts, argu- 
ments, pledges of total abstinence. In the favorite language of that day 
" Light and Love." And never were seven years more fruitful of good 
than those seven years. Never in so short a time in any country was 
such a change in the social habits and customs of any people. The angel 
of mercy came down and stirred the pure fountains of water, and multitudes 
were healed. There was perfect union among all classes, agreement in 
opinion, one object constantly before the mind, and that steadily pur- 
sued. Believers were every where added to the ranks of temperance, 
both men and women. The angel of temperance with the pledge of 
total abstinence in her hand, wore her robes without a spot or blemish. 
Nothing could be said against the cause. The call was for voluntary 
efforts, willing sacrifices, chosen self-denial. Again and again, were 
coercion, threats, and penalties repudiated. It was the triumph of rea- 
son, kindness and love, over habit, custom, and appetite. The effort 
every where showed the qualities of mercy, it was twice blessed. " It 
blesses him that takes, and him that gives." It bore such fruit on all 
its branches, that it seemed the harbinger of the day of universal love. 
So it was with the gospel of Jesus Christ, during the first three hundred 
years of its history upon earth. Her weapons were not carnal, but 
mighty — and as soon as they became carnal, they were no longer mighty. 

The first decree of Constantine, in 313, was an act of to?erai^o?^, mak- 
ing the Christian religion equal as to civil privileges, with idolatry. 
The former gained constantly, but slowly upon the latter. The friends 
of the pure faith became impatient ; they saw clearly the absurdity of 
idolatry ; besides it degraded, shockingly degraded its worshippers ; it 
lead them into all sort of crimes — idolatry was a dreadful temptation to 
some of the best minded people in the world, — they always, when 
accused, charged their sins over to their gods. " Abolish the idols," 
said the Christian sages of that time ; " let us have a prohibitory law." 
And they at once had it ; heretics Avere banished, idolaters put to the 
sword, and the sword of the church, in the hand of the Roman empe- 
ror, drank blood, and she herself drank the cup of weakness and tremb- 
ling, and the martyrs fell on the wrong side, and their blood was the 
seed of idolatry, which sprang up in sacred relics, images of the saints, 
and the transfusion of the pagan philosophy through the entire doctrines 
of Christianity. Such was the effect of a prohibitory law introduced 
to accomplish a moral and spiritual end. That was the first prohibitory 
law, intending to change by law, the habits, customs and opinions of a 
large portion of the community, wielded by the hands of Christian 
men. There have been plenty of them since, and they commonly des- 
troy their authors, after inflicting incredible evils upon society. 

In 1833, the wine question was introduced, and brought conflicting 
opinions in contact with each other, in temperance societies and conven- 
tions. The early signers of the ardent spirit pledge, however, mostly 
concurred in the exclusion of wine. On this subject there was a great 
deal of bad argument and worse exegesis, in trying to show that the 
wine spoken of in scripture, was not real wine. Of course the attempt 
failed. " Some," says the historian of that period, "who had delivered. 



6 

public addresses, and stood foremost in the rank of reformers, were 
thrown into the back ground, and stood as silent spectators of passing 
events." (Davis p. 139.) 

At or about this time, there was an attempt to promote the cause of 
temperance by patronage. Temperance taverns were opened all over 
the country. With some few exceptions, the attempt was a complete 
failure. It ended in mutual recriminations and hypoci'isy. The land- 
loi'ds complained that they did not receive the encouragement held out 
by the resolutions of the temperance conventions. The friends of tem- 
perance on the other hand, complained that the landlords carried the 
matter farther than they intended, and gave them not only harmless drinks, 
but also set before them tables without any temptations upon them. 

In 1840 the whirlwind of Washingtonianism passed over the country. 
This did some good, brought a few up from the depths of sin, and led 
them to the Lamb of God, and they have become pillars in his temple. 
Too many of them, however, gloried in their shame. "Without a single 
qualification save that they were not then drunkards, they became pub- 
lic teachers of a new philosophy, that all the force of sin was in the 
temptation, all the guilt of sin was in the person next behind the tempta- 
tion, and the poor suffering sinner was the innocent victim of these double 
wiles. This philosophy has swept upward into legislative halls. It is one 
of the leaves from that tree of knowledge, from which we learn that all 
sin is the result of the wicked organization of society. The effort to 
legislate upon this subject, is the first time that society has consented 
to make itself responsible for this doctrine. 

And now we come to the law — the law which attempts to outlaw 
all intoxicating liquors as a beverage. This result must be reached as 
I affirm by choice, and not by compulsion — by conviction and not by 
legislation. And if you attempt to reach it by legislation, and fail, then 
you become simply ridiculous, and the cause in whose name you ope- 
rate is dishonored ; and not only dishonored, but its friends discouraged, 
and its enemies will triumph openly. 

A prohibitoiy law upon this subject, to my mind, is just as impos- 
sible, in any part of the civilized world, as it is impossible to make a 
broom that will sweep all the stars out of the sky every night ; or to 
remove the ocean by dipping a sponge into it and then squeezing it 
out upon the shore. 

An early and constant friend of this cause, says of all partial efforts, 
"As well might the ocean be poured upon the Andes and its waters 
be stopped from violently rushing down their sides." 

"The reformation of a town, or even of a State, is but emptying of 
its waters the bed of a river, to be instantly replaced by the wateri? 
from above ; or like the creation of a vacuum in the atmosphere, which 
is instantly filled by the pressure of the circumjacent air." 

But logic, and not rhetoric is wanted upon this subject. Take aUjmst ex- 
perience — put that down as tlie first reason. It is not for the want of 
attempts at this kind of legislation that there is not such a law now. 
Tennessee, Mississippi, Illinois, and Massachusetts passed prohibitory 
laws on this subject thirteen years ago, and they immediately became 
a dead letter, or were repealed. The historian of that period, now says ; 



" From 1836 to IS iO, the cause advanced slowly. The subject of Li- 
cense Laws was discussed largely in legislatures, and some unwise 
laws were enacted, which diverted the public mind from the great 
w^ork in which they had been successfully engaged." (Davis, Half Cen- 
tury, page 140.) What were the license laws here spoken of? Pro- 
hibitory laws ! During all this time the legislatures of half the States, 
have been trying to improve the laws upon this subject so as to stop 
or diminish the traflic in intoxicating drinks. 

Some twenty thousand men have had their minds directed to the 
matter, as legislators, and have tried their best, and no prohibitory 
law has yet been found. The truth is, no man can see through tliis 
subject, — take the circumstances into his eye, and absorb them into his 
law, so that it will work in practice. A man that can make a good law, 
entering into and permeating society ; touching all parts of the body pol- 
itic, pressing not to break here, nor letting aught escape there, is a great 
man. Laws are the most delicate machinery that happens to be in this 
Avorld. A man who makes and perfects a good law, pays the world 
a thousand times for living in it. Laws are the fruits of past centuries 
— the seeds of all future years, springing up around every generation 
Avith fresh blessings. Always spending themselves, and yet ever grow- 
ing stronger — the older they are, the quicker their perceptions — the 
more quietly they sleep, the more certainly they watch. The less they 
say, the more they do — the less they are known, the more worthy of 
fame ; their obscurity is their honor — the fewer their victims, the more 
complete their victories. You would think it a very ditficult task to 
introduce a new nerve into the human body, so that it shall perform its 
own functions and not disturb the functions of other members of the 
body. It is likewise a very difficult thing to introduce a new organic 
law into society. 

That past attempts at legislation have failed, is proved from the re- 
port of the committee who brought forward the Bill. They say " exist- 
ing laws have proved a failure." That this is so, so far as the pres- 
ent laws pretend to specify for what purposes liquors shall be sold, is 
true, I have no doubt. But that the Laws of this State have done 
great good by limiting and restraining the traffic, there can be no doubt. 
And if they were not denounced, and were executed, as they would be 
if they were not denounced, they would do a great deal more good. 
But one exception remains against this otherwise universal experience. 
" Maine, it is believed," says the report, " has struck the true principle." 

This belief was soon shaken in the minds of honorable Senators ; 
for at the close of the debate, one Senator, a friend of the law, says : — 
" this is no Maine Law since your numerous amendments to it ; and the 
Maine Law was what the people asked for. This has none of the 
vitality of that laio." Here you are again, afloat on the tide of endless 
experiment — trying to do an impossible thing. "K the mind," 
says McCosh, one of the best of Scotch metaphysicians, "If the 
mind can be brought to philosophical humility, in no other way, let it be 
by its being driven on that wall of adamant, of which Sir James 
Mcintosh speaks. " The wall of adamant which bounds human inquiry, 
has scarcely ever been discovered by any adventurer, until he hasbeen 



8 

roused by the shock that drove him back." The wall of adamant in the 
line of prohibitory laws, can be found in no other way probably. 
But the Maine Law has worked well in Maine. What are nine months 
in the life of a law ? It shows no more what the law is, nor what it will 
do for society, than an infant nine months old, shows what kind of 
man he will make. Almost any scheme in the hands of its originator, 
filled with enthusiasm, working with a zeal that never sleeps, will pro- 
duce great apparent and immediate results. New plans of heal- 
ing the diseases of the body are often proposed, and proved too, by 
actual success. In second hands the thing nearly fails. Six months in 
cold water does not soak out total depravity ; and while there is a 
depraved heart there will be depraved appetites ; and with these, crimes 
and diseases. 

Jonathan Edwards, — preaching original sin at Northampton, and 
God's method of healing it by the salt of his grace, carried to the foun- 
tain, the heart, by his Spirit, — did more to heal all manner of diseases 
and prevent all manner of crimes than any number of Round Hill 
Baths or prohibitory laws. " Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must 
be born again." If you can do that work, then work away to enact 
laws to make men better ; but till then you had better punish overt acts, 
and let intentions alone. Let men be tried for acts done, and not 
arraigned because some person, ever so good or ever so bad, ever so 
discriminating or ever so hasty, says " he believes, and has reason to 
believe " that such a person intends to commit an offence. 

This leads me to an analysis of the law, and the circumstances under 
which it is to operate. The end and aim, professedly, of the law, is to 
prevent ci-ime, by taking away from those who use intoxicating drinks, 
this temptation to crime. Can you reach it by legislation ? Suppose 
the Law passed and executed. All the liquors manufactured in this 
State and in this Country are out of the hands of drinking men. The 
ocean, on every wave and from every port in the civilized world, brings 
it to our ports, in all quantities, from puncheons down to pint bottles. 
The importers can sell it to every body, and every man can buy it, and 
those who cannot buy it in the measures furnished can club together, 
and then divide it. And every man for whom you spill one barrel of 
rum, which he believes is property, and which you have sanctioned as 
property by your law, and license, and sale, will buy ten barrels and 
give it away ; and intoxicating drinks will then become a temptation, 
as they never have been before. Then you have Canada on the north, 
and every railroad will become a river of death to the community. 

But suppose you could carry legislation a great many steps farther, 
and get Congress to forbid its importation ; have you banished the arts ? 
Have you stopped the sun from shining ? Wherever there is seventy 
degrees of heat falling upon the juice of almost any vegetable, there is 
fermentation, and fermentation is the mother of alcohol ; and I should 
just as soon think to make a law against fermentation, except for certain 
purposes, as to make a law to regulate the use of the result of fermenta- 
tion. Or, you may carry it one step farther. The sun is the cause of 
fermentation, as I " have reason to believe and do believe," — put him 
for sixty days into the arctic zone. 



Every vegetable on eartli that has one particle of saccharine matter 
in it, has only to be put in water till it ferments, and you have alcohol ; 
five dollars or less will put a distillery into the house of every man who 
wants it. England put a very heavy duty upon whiskey carried into 
Ireland. Private distillation, concealed distillation went on all over the 
kingdom. The British Government had not power to stop it by pains 
and penalties. Where drinking abounded, introduced and regulated by 
law, it did much more abound against the law, — over the law. 

Besides, you admit by your law that intoxicating liquors must be 
made — must be sold — -for certain purposes ; that they must, in short, be 
within the reach of every man in the community. But you say, for cer- 
tain purposes, which you define by law, and which I say must be forever 
settled by the voluntary fiat of the man who buys. Here is a point 
which, unless you are omniscient, you can never settle. You can never 
go one step beyond the discretion of the seller, and the moral sense of 
the buyer. The seller of an article so liable to abuse, so constantly 
abused, should certainly be a man of integrity, and sell only for the 
public good. You say he shall sell for certain purposes only. Suppose 
he is honest, upright, and intends to do so. Will not those very persons 
who abuse the article make false pretences ? The very men from 
whom you need no declaration, will make a true one ; and those who 
ought not to have it, will make a false declaration. 

Suppose two men, — neighbors, — both standing precisely alike as to 
character in the community. Each says to the other, " I must have 
some liquor;'' both want it to drink, and they avow it to each other. 
Both go to the public store ; one tells the truth and does not get it, the 
other tells a lie and does get it. Very well, you say, men often get 
things under false pretences, — that cannot be helped. Certainly not. 
But what effect will this operation have upon the mind, the passions, 
the appetites of this man who told the truth, and lost his dram by it ? 
Is his desire abated, his purpose changed ? So far from it, that what 
was before incidental, and subordinate to other purposes in life, becomes 
ascendant ; it takes possession of him. He has now not only an appe- 
tite for drink to be gratified, but he has, what he at least considers, an 
injustice to be avenged ; and he will do it by seeking in other channels 
the gratification of his appetite, and by hating this law. He will oppose 
it — overthrow it — if he can. Let us see how that stands. Look at the 
number of victims of this law, and see whether it is probable you can 
execute it. I do not know the proportion of a community who may be 
habitual oifenders of any law, and yet that law, in some cases, may be 
executed. But I think the number must be very small. 

A very large majority of laws are kept by most citizens from their 
respect to the principles of the law. And when, for any reason, a con- 
siderable portion of the community are, openly or secretly, violators of 
any law, in spirit or in form, you cannot execute it. A proprietor of 
land in one of the Western States sued for rails taken from his land by 
one of the neighboring citizens. The case was proved by an eye 
witness, — no doubt was on the mind of the court or the bar. Verdict, 
" not guilty." When the jury were set free, the astonished proprietor 
asked one of them the reason of so strange a verdict. '* Why," said he, 



10 

" there were six men on the jury who fence their farms in the same way." 
Now this law reaches fairly, in its moral bearings, every man wlio 
drinks, as well as he who sells intoxicating drinks as a beverage. You 
need tell me nothing about the sympathy of the hard drinkers with tliis 
law, so that temptation shall be moved out of their way. That may be 
the feeling for a moment, and at times, and it is a good excuse to cheat 
you and sometimes themselves with. It seems you dare not trust a man 
who sells, on the jury ; will you trust a man who drinks ? Whatever 
an individual might do on the bench or in the jury-box, every man who 
buys intoxicating liquors as a beverage will feel that whatever the guilt 
of the man who sells to him or the like of him is, his own is just equal 
to it, and deserves the same punishment, whether it can have it or not. 
Would a Senator debase his moral sense by voting for such a law, to 
press hard upon others, when he did not intend to keep it himself ? 
Would a Governor sign a bill exposing a man to sixty days in prison 
as a felon, when he meant to persevere in both buying and drinking ? 
Would not a Judge hesitate to sentence a man to prison who had sent 
him, that very day, three bottles of wine from an imported cask ? But 
you say all these men, if they continue to drink, will get it by the cask, 
and in lawful ways. Will that lead you to respect them, or will they 
respect themselves any more for that ? Will they make or execute a 
law upon others, the burdens of which they will not take upon them- 
selves ? The farmer who makes a barrel of cider on his own farm, 
from his own orchard, and keeps it thirty days till it ferments, and 
then sells it, is, by this law, subject to a fine of $100 for the first oifence 
and imprisonment for sixty days if the fine is not paid. For the second 
offence the penalty is doubled ; and for the third offence the fine is $200 
and imprisonment four months in the common jail ! Now I do not know 
but the people of Massachusetts are ready to execute such a law as 
that ; but in the language of another, " there may be those who think 
that such an extreme system of legislation wiU work oiit a moral refor- 
mation." " If you think so, I confess you are too strong for me. You 
are the victor in the debate. But before lean say that you are not ike 
victim of a strong delusion, God, in his great mercy, must cure me of 
mine " 

It may be said, in answer to this, that the line between what are and 
what are not intoxicating drinks is not very clearly defined, and that, 
probably, the law will not be construed to cover cider and house beer. 
The answer is, these are covered by the words and a fair interpretation 
of the words of the Bill. Besides, previous legislation shows precisely, 
so far as certain things are concerned, what it must mean. In the Re- 
vised Statutes there is a distinction made between fermented and dis- 
tilled liquors. Rum, brandy, and other spiritous liquors are named in 
one class ; wine, beer, ale, cider, and other intoxicating drinks are put 
in another class. In a law additional, and passed in 1850, the word 
spiritous is stricken out, and intoxicating substituted for it ; so that the 
word intoxicating becomes a generic and common name for both distilled 
and fermented liquors. This proposed law specifies nothing, but says ; 
" spiritous or intoxicating," by which they rnust mean all that have 
been named in previous statutes, and to which these words have been 
applied. 



11 

It ■will certainly be news througliout the civilized world, that a man 
may be imprisoned four months in Massachusetts, for making and sell- 
ing the very article which Christ made and gave away at Galilee. Of 
all the wines on earth on which men get intoxicated, I know of none 
worse than the icine of self-righteousness. This turns the most quickly 
into the acetous fermentation. 

It will be said, again, that it is not the intention of the law-makers 
to execute it upon cider and small beer. "Why not say so in your Bill 
then ? Besides, if you do not intend to imprison men or women for mak- 
er selling small beer, as most certainly may be done under this law ; yet 
will persons consent to live under such a liability ? Are you sure no 
envious or revengeful neighbor may be found, who will watch for such 
an opportunity ? If you knock in the head of your neighbor's barrel 
of wine or gin, will he not find an opportunity to avenge himself on you, 
or some friend of this law, who exposes himself to its penalties by 
delivering any where in the Commonwealth, except in his own house, 
three bottles of beer, wine, or cider ? "Will such a law as that be tol- 
erated ? will it spread light and love ? will it be for the peace, good 
order, and happiness of the people of this Commonwealth ? 

But the biU goes farther. If any three persons, voters in any town, 
shall make complaint under oath, that they have reason to believe, and 
do believe that intoxicating drinks are kept and intended for sale — then 
the justice shall issue his search warrant. No discretion is here left 
to the Judge. The premises of every man are subject to search, if three 
men, (as amended,) one man affirms that he believes liquors are 
there intended for sale ; and his dwelling house, if he believes they 
have been sold. The person complaining need not afiirm that it is so, 
but only that he believes it is so. Now some persons believe on a very 
small amount of evidence, and the less the evidence, the stronger the 
faith. The imagination can multiply evidence as fast as the microscope 
living creations on the waving leaves of the forest. 

Some persons believe the glorious and happy spirits of the dead are 
sent under tables to answer silly questions and enrich knaves, but do 
you want the search warrant to be at the mercy of persons of so easy 
faith? 

Another feature of the bill, looks to me a little like vengeance — a 
feature that will neither promote morals, good feeling, nor temperance — 
a feature which will exasperate and sting for years to come, wherever 
this law shall have been executed. I refer to the destruction of the 
liquors. This is said to be essential to the law ; if so, it only shows 
how absurd the attempt is to frame a prohibitory law. While the 
law provides for the destruction of gin or brandy, by the ofiicers of a 
city or town ; another officer of the same city or town is buying another 
barrel for the public store. Why this Avanton waste ? Why not confis- 
cate your seized liquor, and save buying a barrel ? Is it for the moral 
effect ? The only effect that I can see it is likely to have is a very 
immoral one. It will sting to madness every man you treat in this 
way. However it may seem to you, it will look to hun like the wanton 
exercise of power. Justice has no such attribute as this. All laws 
are, or ought to be, to establish and maintain justice. The foundations 



12 

of her throne are too deep, she sits too calm and serene upon it, to in- 
dulge in this apparently spiteful and revengeful proceeding. This 
destruction, has been compared to the destruction of the instruments of 
gambling and counterfeiting. If the same government kept a store to 
sell gambling and counterfeiting instruments, the cases would be par- 
allel. The United States seize and sell contraband goods — why not 
Mse rightly, what was intended for a wrong use, and save the distillation 
or the importation of just that quantity ? Or why not send it out of the 
State ? You allow the distiller under this very law to send it out of 
the State, in any quantities, and for any purposes, to which the pur- 
chaser may think best to apply it. Why not be consistent, and allow 
them to send it only to the States where a prohibitory law will cover it, 
and keep it from mischief. This is not doing by your neighbors as 
you do by yourselves. And if other States do the same, then the citi- 
zens of one State can be supplied from another, to any amount, and for 
any purpose except for sale. 

This shows, clearly to my own mind the absurdities into which men 
plunge, when they try an impossible thing. Error is always contradict- 
ing itself, and so is folly. Under which epithet this law shall 
range itself, belongs to its friends to decide. 

It attempts impossibilities, and is therefore crowded with absurdities. 
It would take away temptations, and offers a bribe to hypocrisy. It 
wets the streets of this State with rum, and then sells it freely to its 
neighbors. It sells Avith one hand what it wastes with the other. It 
groups everything together under generic terms, and defines noth- 
ing. It sells for specific purposes, but marks no boundaries, makes no 
limits — Chemical purposes ! and when a man has mixed brandy and 
water in equal parts, and find they combine perfectly, has he not tried 
a chemical experiment ? And when he drinks it, and tries its effect 
upon the animal economy, he has carried the chemical experiment one 
step farther". Don't chemists often try their drugs upon themselves ? 
Then medicinal ! ! What man that wants to drink, that cannot feel 
just sick enough to need such medicine. He knows what will cure him, 
and he tells you it does so, it goes right to the spot. Who can gainsay 
it ? Who can disprove it ? Xerxes flung chains into the angry Helles- 
pont. Canute commanded the tide. Legislative folly has its succes- 
sive incarnations. 

There are two other objections, in my mind, to this law, and those 
are : it is a violation of the early professions of temperance men upon 
this subject ; and is really an attempt to do one thing, under pretened of 
doing another. 

If these objections are sustained, tolerant and honorable men, it seems 
to me, ought to pause. 

You honor pirates for one thing ; they hoist the black flag and sail 
under their own colors. 

Now all, or nearly all the early advocates of this cause, gave public 
assurances, that they did not then, nor ever intend to make temperance 
a political engine, nor -would they attempt to coerce men in their 
opinions. They did not say, that the law should not be used, but 
they did say, that as temperance men, they would not grasp political 



13 

power "and use it technically for the cause of temperance. These 
pledges were given in good faith, by men, some of whom are dead, 
and some of whom are yet alive. Will you falsify this pledge ? Do 
you deny that it was made ? No one I presume will do this. 

But it will be said that this law is to prevent crime and pauperism, 
and has nothing to do with temperance, in a technical sense, nor any 
intention of a moral bearing other than what every good law has. 
Can honest and fair minded men say this ? Are not the temperance 
cause technically so called, and this law identical f 

What is the pledge of the temperance societies ? " Total ahstinence 
from intoxicating drinks as a beverage." Is not that the very central 
point — the heart — the life blood of the law ? If the Senators had 
told any temperance society in the State, to bring in a bill, could they 
have done any more than put their pledge right square into it ? But 
this you say, is the movement of a spontaneous uprising of the people ; 
is not specific legislation for temperance men, nor brought forward by 
them. Did the venerable prosecuting officer for Suffolk County, sug- 
gest this bill ? Plave the prosecuting officers throughout the State asked 
for it ? Has one Grand Jury petitioned for it ? Have the Bar 
seen their way through it, and do they tell you it can be executed? 
When the people move spontaneously on a subject, and that subject 
the suppression of crime, a voice will be heard from some one or 
all of these sources. Whence comes the law then ? Whence the 
influence that urges it forward. From the most active temperance 
men in New England. What says the writer who introduces this law ? 
and the statistics accompanying it, into Massachusetts ? This is done in 
in a small pamphlet of sixty-four pages, containing an introduction, the 
law itself, and statements from different persons about the operation of 
the law. This is the pamphlet which has turned the head of Mas- 
sachusetts, and driven her back to re-enact the folly of 1838. 

In the preface, the writer says : " The Law constitutes an era, and is 
fast producing the most important revolution on the subject of Tempe- 
rance, not only in this State, but throughout the Union, and in all civil- 
ized countries." Again he says, this Law is " serving as the instruct- 
ress of the world." " Instructress of the world." Yes, it will teach the 
world — and what will it teach the world ? Why that " light and 
love," mean law and force. That is the lesson to go forth to the 
world from this law. That men have no faith in light, or are too im- 
patient to wait for it, and have just love enough to make all other men 
do as they want them to do, when they have the power Again : " It 
substantially compassess the whole subject, and deserves to be entitled 
the MODEL TEMPERANCE LAW." 

That writer told the truth. It is a Temperccnce Law. Why not then 
call your Bill, " An Act to promote Total Abstinence." That would 
be the exact truth, that is its objects; but it would not sound well. It 
would look as though the temperance society had taken the reins of 
government into its own hands for its own purposes. Good purposes 
of course. All intolerant laws originate in good purposes. But good 
purposes will not compensate for the violation of solemn pledges, nor 
for the destructive eifects of bad laws. 



14 

Look into the Senate. What says one of their own number ? There 
is " a want of honesty in some men on the subject ; they held one 
doctrine and jDursued another ; pointed in one direction with the finger, 
and another with the heart. If there was no pretence on this subject, 
there would hardly be a majority in the Senate." (Hon. M. Lawrence.) 

Is that spontaneous ? is that the voice of the people ? is that the 
wisdom of calm deliberation and a clear eye to the public good ? And 
wlio make Senators dodge on this subject, — speak one way and vote 
another, — and hide themselves under the fig leaves of a proviso to send 
it to the people, just as their ancestors in the garden of Eden hid them- 
selves in the case of another prohibitory law ? I say, what makes 
them do so ? Because the flaming sword of temperance men looks 
every way at them, and they " tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as 
a dove out of the land of Assyria." And sure enough, — well they may 
tremble. Are not the pains and penalties already prepared ? And has 
not the eloquent young Senator from this city been told that he had 
woven his political winding sheet, by his speech and his vote ? Does 
any one charge that he did not vote and speak according to his convic- 
tions ? that he did not seek the public good, as he saw it ? Certainly 
not. What is the charge ? He did not vote to enact ike pledge of 
Total Abstinence into a law ! I honor him for it. And if he should 
be ostracised for this vote, he can be consoled by the saying of a very 
shrewd man ; " The Athenians sent their best men into exile ; ive, more 
humane^ only remove them from office." The Athenians were also, I 
think, in the habit, in all times of difiiculty, very soon to recall their 
banished men. 

Here you have it, moved by temperance men, with the total absti- 
nence pledge in the law, and to be followed by political proscription. Is 
not that political action ? Bringing temperance square into politics, and 
violating yjour own pledges ? And is this pohtical proscription and 
this law right? Have you a right to pass it, according to all the 
established laws of toleration in the civilized world ? To this question 
I say NO, most distinctly. 

Five years before the commencement of the temperance reform in 
this country, some American Missionaries went to the Sandwich Islands, 
in the Pacific Ocean, to carry them the Gospel. In a very short time 
the king, many of the chiefs and nobles, and a large number of the 
people became Christians, — many really so, some nominally. The 
obscene rites of idolatry were abolished, and the law of nature and 
Christianity in regard to marriage was restored. Some of the chiefs — 
some of the people — still clung to idolatry. The king has a Christian 
for his counsellor — the whole administration is intended, indirectly, in 
all ways that it can, to favor the new religion. But out of the idola- 
ters, there are taken plenty of criminals, — it is expensive to try them, 
— many of them sink down into poverty, and die miserably. To the 
Christian mind, surveying this picture, idolatry is the cause of the crime 
— it is against the State — the public good requires that idolatry shall 
cease — we must banish it with pains and penalties. In any age but 
this the thing would be done at once, and directly. But suppose the 
advisers of the king do not touch any man's faith at all, do not legislate 



15 

for religion, but make a prohibitory law, forbid the manufacture or the 
traffic in idols, and then appoint a public agent to manufacture, and 
another public agent to sell idols, only as specimens of the arts, and as 
models of mechanic skill. Would such a law stop idolatry ? Have the 
Christian portion of the Sandwich Islands the right to deny an idol to an 
idolater"^ Every obscene rite they may, they ought to punish: have 
they a right to go farther ? 

Again, suppose the Missionaries to Turkey succeed in converting a 
majority of that Mahomedan kingdom. A large minority is left. The 
Koran is their faith and their practice. But the Koran, as Christians 
believe, is injurious to good morals. Touch not the faith of the Ma- 
hometan, but forbid the Koran to be printed, except on public types, — 
to be sold, except at the public store, — and that to be used for Literary 
purposes only, — outlaw it as a beverage to faith : — have you a right to 
doit? 

Have you a right to change by coercivemeasm-es the habits and usages 
of one half the people of this Commonwealth ? I doubt it. And if you 
have the right, I am certain you have not the power to do it ; and you 
will come out of this conflict with wet feathers and trailing arms. The 
voice of all experience is on the other side of this question. Every 
thorough examination of the whole subject will bring the mind to this 
result. The people, wish to promote temperance, they are assured this 
law will do it, therefore they petition for it. Let them examine it — 
put the other side to them, and if they do not reject it then ; a year or 
two of strife, a net-work of lawsuits all over the State, alienation of 
feeling, a whole community demoralized and debased by violence of 
language, and the flames of retaliation will convince them, and convert 
them from all attempts at prohibitory legislation upon this subject. 

But what can be done ? First I say better to bear the ills Ave have, 
than fly to others we know not of. One great reason of the intemper- 
ance in this country, is the intensity of life here. When the steamboat 
races, the oil will be poured on. A log cabin and a mug of cider made 
one man president. The excitement under those mottoes, burnt up ten 
thousand temperance pledges ; and would have swept your prohibitory 
laws into the ocean. The excitement in California, has not so far sub- 
sided, that the temperance pledge has much power there. If you 
want to do more to destroy temperance in one year than you can regain 
in five, pass this law : and the excitement and the strife which it will pro- 
duce, are the very soil in which intemperance in drinking, finds its most 
numerous and easy victims. Society has been stimulated, till it has 
been strained. It asks repose and reflection. 

And now in conclusion, permit me to enrich your minds by an extract 
from a review, on this subject, written by one of the most learned 
divines, and philosophic minds in this Commonwealth — one of the 
earliest and one of the strongest friends of the cause — the Rev. Mr. 
Withington, of Newburyport. 

" If any person can devise a plan for prohibitory legislation on the 
sale of intoxicating drinks, not involving the greatest inconsistency even 
in the very scheme, then I will acknowledge he has done what sur- 
passes the utmost flights of my imagination. His very plan must be a 



16 

square wheel made to roll. But how absurd it is to expect success in 
the execution, where you cannot even devise consistency in the design ! 
You launch a vessel full of holes, and expect her not to sink. Some of 
ihe sages of our day have actually proposed that the sale of ardent 
spirit for a beverage should be placed on a level with counterfeiting 
money, and subject a man to durance in the state prison ; and they 
expect such a law to be executed ! If we are to reason from rhetoric, 
rum is poison, selling it is murder, and hanging is the punishment. 
Yes, send them all to the gallows ! I desire to bear my solemn testi- 
mony, and to say though I have seen frequent attempts, I never knew 
any good to come from such legislation. I have seen men exasperated 
by it, but never reformed. 

So it ever has been, and so it ever will be, until nature itself is 
changed. I was in Connecticut when attempts were made to enforce 
the observance of the Sabbath by law. I saw hypocrisy, power, passion, 
haughtiness, indignation, force, threats, and cursing ; but I saw no pro- 
motion of meekness among Christians, or repentance among sinners. 
The contest was long, and the fruits were bitter. Laws are intimately 
connected with manners. Depend upon it, if such a system of legisla- 
tion is once adopted and sustained, there will spring up a system of 
manners hateful and dreadful in the extreme. It is common to meet 
such remarks as these with pathetic descriptions of the evils of drunk- 
eness ; the brutal husband — the weeping, starving children — the thrill- 
ing facts, as they are called — which, if they do not subdue our reason, 
ought'to melt our hearts. It is true, drunkenness is a great evil. God 
forbid that I should say aught to diminish it ! It is one of the sorest 
curses that a fallen world has been doomed to feel. But the question 
is not, among sober men, whether vice is an evil, but what are the best 
means to remove it ; and I venture to prophesy that it wiU never be 
done by prohibitory legislation." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 827 266 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

029 827 266 



